


Day 16: Fallen Heroes

by LtLime23



Series: August MEFFW Challenge [14]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Real Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 03:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11819961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtLime23/pseuds/LtLime23
Summary: Day 16 of the Month of FanfictionPrompt: Your life as fan fictionLike everyone there are good and bad times in life to call up for inspiration, when I saw this prompt I instantly knew what I was going to write about, it was a proper full on turning point in life which set off a chain reaction of awesomeness.Then I sat down, and instead I bled.





	Day 16: Fallen Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Day 16 of the Month of Fanfiction
> 
> Prompt: Your life as fan fiction
> 
> Like everyone there are good and bad times in life to call up for inspiration, when I saw this prompt I instantly knew what I was going to write about, it was a proper full on turning point in life which set off a chain reaction of awesomeness.
> 
> Then I sat down, and instead I bled.

The condensation on the window highlights the grease smears that would usually go unnoticed, it distracted from the sheets of drizzle that wrapped themselves around the city streets, adding another depressing element to this already seedy part of town. 

Shepard watched the rain on the windows cling heavy to the glass before being overcome by gravity and tumbling down. It mirrored the droplets on the beer bottle in front of her. She was grateful to the barmaid who hadn’t ask for ID, obviously cottoning on to Shepard’s dishevelled appearance and request for a beer and neat whiskey at ten am on a Tuesday. 

Gentle wisps of steam rose from Shepard’s shoulders, she wasn’t sure if it was from the overheated bar or the anger that seethed inside her. The fire had been burning for a while but only now, with this morning’s revelations did she recognise the fuel that had been slowly added over nearly eighteen months. 

She almost laughed at the irony, it all made perfect sense now, it was all so fucking obvious. She thought back to happier times, days out at the beach or climbing mountains with her parents and her brother there too, a family. He’d been the first to go, five years older than her, he’d left as soon as he found an escape route, regardless of how inappropriate it was, regardless of how many bridges he burnt. Shepard had tried to keep it going but addiction is cruel, until he stepped up she was one hero down. 

The barmaid brought her another whiskey, Jane hadn't ordered it, lingering longer than necessary, a half smile on her lips, maybe Shepard would pursue that comfort later.   
They say a daughter’s first love is always her Father, she loved her Father, idolised him, wanted to be everything he was, trusted him to the nth degree. But now she was here, the slow decay of their relationship, a wound infected, rotting from the inside out. It had started small, barely noticeable in the turmoil of a busy household and Shepard’s own teenage angst, but it was there. 

Gradually it had built until she could barely stand to be in the same room as him, he’d either yell at her or tell her to do something. She’d needed him, desperately, needed his solid form, his anchor and he hadn’t been there, too consumed with his own demons. 

Tomorrow she'd pack her life into the family skycar and sit in awkward silence for three hours, to get dropped off at the barracks ready to start her Alliance career. She'd worked so hard to meet the criteria, nearly missed it at the final hurdle but here she was on the cusp of her dream, feeling utterly broken and dejected. 

Shepard wasn't foolish to think relationships were easy, she knew her parents had married young, her Brother coming almost immediately, money was tight, it was tough, but they managed and they took the opportunities life presented them with both hands, they owned their success. The bubbles in the beer popped gently against the roof of her mouth as she re-lived years of arguments and fights between her parents. She swallowed hard, knew her Mother was hard to live with, Shepard had long since stopped trying to engage in mother-daughter conversations, there was no trust, her Mother would pretend to listen but all that mattered was her opinion, she was always right. 

It wasn't the affair that bothered her, Shepard could accept that two people who had lost all sense of what brought them together would hurt one another in various ways, she knew it was just a symptom of the underlying infection. Admittedly, finding out the day before you were due to leave home wasn't ideal but bad news was never considerate like that. 

No, it was the pregnancy that bothered Shepard the most. Medically impossible to be her Father's, but still the thing that drove her to this anonymous part of town, that saw her drinking spirits warm and neat and that would soon deposit her into the arms of a stranger. Rejection pure and simple, feeling like she wasn't good enough, that she hadn't been the daughter her Father wanted and he'd instead gone in search of a new family. Her second hero fell.


End file.
